Returnships & Returner Opportunities | Return To Work Programmes

Fatherhood, Flexible Work and Career Advancement for Women

Career Advancement for Women

We regularly see much written about motherhood and flexible working, yet less often do we get a glimpse in to the experiences of fathers and flexible working.

Sheryl Sandberg in ‘Lean In’ promulgates the notion that the man whom a woman chooses as their partner is one of the most significant career decisions she will make, especially if she is planning a family. This however is based on a premise that should the man wish to support his wife’s career there will be accessible flexible work schedules available to him if he desires to keep working himself.

What happened to the On-Ramps?

In 2005 the Harvard Business Review published an article under Career Planning titled Off-Ramps and On-Ramps – Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce.

At the time the article stimulated great debate and discussion, both in the US and the UK, around the reasons women were ‘opting out’ of long-term career progression and how to change this. A flurry of gender diversity programs were quickly released as corporations worked to stymie any chance of being perceived as unfriendly to working women.

Is Gender Equality Achievable in the Workplace?

The lack of women in senior positions in both government and business has been a much discussed issue for some time. However, with the exception of the publication of Lord Davies’ ‘Women on Boards’, it is debatable whether anything of any real substance has been done to address the crux of the problem over the past decade. Read more